Professor David Reay, the co-author of the University of Edinburgh paper, said that the level of food waste is “shocking” especially as one-tenth of the world’s population is starving.

According to FoodCloud, one million tonnes of food is thrown away in Ireland, the equivalent of 80 kg of food per person, while one in eight people experience food poverty.

Fresh Food In Garbage Can to Illustrate Waste Photo: USDA

Solutions

Christina O’Sullivan, Policy Coordinator for Feedback told The Green News that supermarkets should “relax” cosmetic standards to test customer’s responses. A small change to cosmetic specifications can make a big difference on how much crop a farmer is able to sell, she said.

“In addition to relaxing cosmetic specifications on their main ranges, supermarkets should extend their cosmetically ‘imperfect’ ranges,” Ms O’Sullivan said, adding that “supermarkets often use cosmetic specifications as an excuse for rejecting unwanted produce.”

Other options to lower amounts of wasted fresh food for supermarkets could be to turn ‘wonky’ foods into processed, ready meals or donate and sell it to charities.

Tesco has set a target to waste no “good food” by 2020. In 2014, it launched a food donation program and has since donated four million meals to charities across Ireland.

The chain also offers a range of “imperfectly perfect” foods for customers to purchase fruit and vegetables that do not meet cosmetic standards but are perfectly safe to eat.